Bronte Geldart, Junior Account Executive at our Manchester office reflects on her first year in PR with BIG Partnership.
When I graduated from university in 2022, I would never have thought I would be working with some of the world’s biggest brands 10 months later.
My first year in PR has been an exciting one to say the least… it’s been unpredictable, exciting and hectic.
For me, the transition from university into the industry was a daunting prospect but one that I knew I needed to embrace as soon as possible to avoid losing ammunition.
After weeks of searching for the right job, I was absolutely over the moon when I was contacted to attend BIG Partnership’s Manchester office, to take part in a second-round interview for a position in their PR team.
It looked like the perfect blend of a professional, fun and vibrant company to be a part of, and the team made me feel included and comfortable from the very first video interview!
Whilst juggling interview prep with writing my final third year dissertation, I knew that I wanted to begin my career whilst my brain was still working and hadn’t turned to mush over the summer. Looking back, this was vital to beginning my career in the best way possible. I believe that if I had waited for the summer to pass before throwing myself into the world of PR, I would’ve lost motivation and missed out on a brilliant opportunity.
After succeeding in getting the role as Junior Account Executive at BIG, I was beyond excited. We planned for my first day to be exactly three days after I was due to hand in my dissertation, meaning I didn’t have much time to worry about the big change from student life.
Moving from a room full of inexperienced 20-year-olds, to work alongside people who have been key to the Manchester PR industry for 15 years was overwhelming to say the least, but in the best way. Observing the way that senior members of my team worked, communicated and managed projects and clients was inspiring and gave me a desire to do well early in the job.
Working at an agency means that you get to work on such a great mix of clients. Some key highlights of the year include getting to work with Freddie Flintoff, Peter Andre and Calum Best (!), getting stuck into a rail construction client and helping to promote its different initiatives, as well as more generally contributing towards delivering more than 300 pieces of coverage for our clients every month.
Some of my favourite campaigns I’ve gotten to work on so far include:
- Pride Ride: In July 2022 we worked with Booking.com to deliver a campaign to promote Manchester Pride, which involved a carpool karaoke tour of the city with Freddie Flintoff and Ru Paul Drag Queen Tayce, ending with a surprise event in Manchester city centre.
- Half and Half House: In January 2023, we created the first ever Half Red, Half Blue house on First Street for Booking.com, to celebrate the Manchester Derby, and kicked up a storm with the national and regional press!
- Language of Love: In February 2023, I was able to attend a shoot with Calum Best for client, On the Beach, where we had Calum read a series of the UK’s favourite chat up lines in different languages, promoting holiday romances.
These campaigns allowed me to gain experience in the different aspects of PR and introduced me to many important and diverse professionals.
Throughout the year, I have also been given the opportunity to work on new business ideas and in November I presented my first pitch! In December, when I had been working at BIG for 6 months, the hard all paid off and I was promoted to Account Executive. I celebrated at my first work’s Christmas party!
I can honestly say that I am a completely different person to who I was when I first met the team in May 2022. I’ll forever be grateful to them for their help and can’t wait to see what the future holds for us all as a team.
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